In primary collision, a vehicle collides with another vehicle. Following the primary collision, secondary collision occurs in a steering device. In the secondary collision, a driver collides with a steering wheel. In order to absorb shock in the secondary collision, there have been proposed various structures for separating a part of a steering column from a vehicle body and moving the part in an axial direction of the column.
For example, according to Patent Document 1, a pair of locking notches extending in parallel to the axial direction of a column are provided on a vehicle body side bracket fixed to a vehicle body. A pair of locking capsules are retained in the locking notches by a plurality of locking pins respectively. A column side bracket is supported through the locking capsules. The locking capsules are coupled and fixed to the column side bracket through bolts inserted into the locking notches, respectively.
The locking pins for retaining the pair of locking capsules include two inside rows of locking pins and two outside rows of locking pins. The inside rows of locking pins are disposed between the pair of locking notches and arranged in parallel to the axial direction of the column. The outside rows of locking pins are disposed on the opposite sides of the pair of locking notches with respect to a direction (corresponding to the width direction of the vehicle) perpendicular to the axial direction of the column, and arranged in parallel to the axial direction of the column.
Upon secondary collision, the locking pins retaining each locking capsule are broken so that the locking capsule can leave a corresponding one of the locking notches and the locking capsule and the column side bracket can move together in the axial direction of the column.